Category Archives: Mobile App Development

An app lesson failure…

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I have had at least a couple of popular apps that I attempted to improve greatly. The improvements were well done and useful, but I released them as separate apps. I think that cost me because I lost any of the original traffic that the original apps had and I haven’t been able to direct that traffic to the new apps. It also meant starting over with reviews and other metrics that tend to draw in new users.

So, if given the chance again I would probably replace the original version with the new version and hope for the best. I’m sure it would upset some users, but in both cases I worked hard to keep the original functionality in place while adding new features.

So, if you have an app that is successful and you want to upgrade it, take the time to think through how you want to release the new version. If the original functions stay in tact it might be better to simply update the old app to the new version instead of creating a stand alone app.

So, lesson learned and money lost. But, here we are.

It’s been a while…

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Well, I guess I have yet to post anything this year. Well, so much for following through with better marketing.

Since it’s been a while, I thought I’d at least put a few words in here to say how things are going. I’ve been updating apps throughout the year, but nothing super major. I was a bit disappointed in my latest release. I like the app and I use it daily, but it hasn’t really found an audience. So, alas it seems like it will end as a commercial failure. But, at least it is an app that I find useful.

I have been doing a video blog daily on Instagram. I’ve covered a lot of topics – many of them political. If you followed the news at all you would know Minnesota has been featured prominently over the last several months (huh, it’s been over 6 months now???). So, that has occupied a lot of my thoughts. I have started to bring my focus back to my apps, though and hopefully I’ll come up with a new project somewhat soon.

If you want to see the Instagram posts, here is the link: instagram.com/duckyplanet

Well, that wasn’t much but at least it’s something. I hope all is going well for everyone and hopefully I’ll keep up with this better than I have been.

Introducing My Productivity App: TaDone!

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My newest app is just about ready for release. This is the quickest turnaround I’ve managed to achieve. It had taken just over 3 weeks from the first line of code until now. I’ve been using the app consistently for most of that time and have found it useful.

The app is based on an idea I had years ago that I found useful. Instead of writing to do lists, I would instead write down tasks as I finished them. For me, this was far more motivating. I still did the standard lists of things to finish occasionally, but I kept recording things as I did them. It allowed me to look back at my days and see just what I had done. This is chores around the house, or something fun like hanging out with a friend. For me, both were important to track. You had a few hours in a day. Anything you did would take part of that time. It also stopped me from doing absolutely nothing for days on end. When you looked at the list, you would see what you had done over the last several days. It felt better to at least do the same number of things or even more.

So, here is a look at what the app looks like now.

It has been useful for me over the last few weeks. I can’t wait to see how it is received by the public. I hope to release it in the next day or so.

Here is a link to my page about it: TaDone!